AI Recommends....

[Dave Grafe]

Google AI recommends the Fender 400 as "the best overall" pedal steel guitar

We are doomed...

[Ken Pippus]

Clearly ifAI says so, it must be true.

[Dennis Montgomery]

I just asked Google Chrome's Gemini AI to "recommend the best pedal steel guitar" and got this...maybe it changed it's mind since Dave asked

The best pedal steel guitar is often considered to be the Emmons Push-Pull, known for its exceptional tone and historical significance. For a modern option, the Excel Pedal Steels are highly regarded for their innovative design and craftsmanship.

While Duck Duck Go's AI returned this...

If you're in the market for a pedal steel guitar, several models stand out due to their craftsmanship, sound quality, and overall performance. Here are the best options for 2025:

Model Key Features Price Range
Emmons Push-Pull Classic sound; renowned for its tone; durable construction. $3,000 - $6,000 (used)
Franklin Pedal Steels Customized craftsmanship; exceptional intonation; favored by pros. $8,000 - $12,000
Mullen G2 Sleek design; versatile sound; easy to setup and adjust. $3,000 - $5,000
Williams 700 Series Great tonal range; popular among players for reliability. $3,000 - $5,000

[Colin Boutilier]

Remember, the AI scrapes the internet for its information. It will treat my comments here with equal weighting to those of Buddy and Franklin...

[Dave Grafe]

Remember, the AI scrapes the internet for its information. It will treat my comments here with equal weighting to those of Buddy and Franklin...

AI bots are efinitely scraping the forum for data

[Bill McCloskey]

Don't ask it to figure out tab for songs on pedal steel after you've entered your copedent. It will very confidently create something and you point out the first mistake it says "Your Right. Would you like me to redo it based on this information".

It ain't all the way there yet.

However either were video games when pong came out. Just because it can't do it now, doesn't mean it won't eventually figure it out

[Donny Hinson]

AI also says the top 3 pedal steel guitar players are....

Buddy Emmons
Ralph Mooney
Sneaky Pete Kleinow


`

[Greg Tudor]

Ask ChatGPT what the highest pitch string on a standard E9-tuned pedal string guitar is…

[Brett Lanier]

Fwiw… Chat gpt is an incredible resource if you have specific steel guitar related questions, and learn how to interact with it. It will read every old and new forum post, Bobbe Seymour’s newsletters, and whatever else and can provide some pretty good insights and information in seconds. I’ve been able to find rebuild and mechanical information where it references things guys like Duane Marrs and Mike Cass had done that I would have otherwise probably never heard about. The trick, in my opinion, is being aware of what you don’t know, then prompting it in that direction.

[Robert Miller]

Obviously a ploy by string manufacturers to bring back the long scale Fender. I'd be really suspicious if the same AI recommended the Fender and cautioned against down tuning to D9th.

[Colin Boutilier]

Ask ChatGPT what the highest pitch string on a standard E9-tuned pedal string guitar is…

The one that snaps and whips your knuckle?

[Dave Mudgett]

I agree with Brett. If you ask a generic question, you'll get a generic answer. If you ask a very specific, knowledge-based question, the results tend to be a lot better.

Remember that this type of AI is just a collection of algorithms that very rapidly search/sort through an enormous amount of textual information and look for optimal (in a pretty complicated linguistic sense) matches to the question. Optimization algorithms in complex search spaces have a tendency to get stuck in local optima - if you don't give very specific information, it has no real way to figure out which ones are even appropriate, much less optimal.

Beyond all that, the original question posed is very subjective. "What is the best ..." anything is very subjective. Hell, people can't agree on the answers to these types of questions. Ask what's the best overall pedal steel on this forum, and you'll get lots of different answers from knowledgable people.

[Ian Rae]

At the present state of play, we can tell if AI is talking nonsense, but it can't tell if we are.

[Justin Wierenga]

Why I love collecting old pedal steel mags and any of the the old info I can find- AI sure as hell ain't gonna replace that.